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Post McColo, Spam On The Rise Again
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2008-11-25
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It seemed from the beginning something that would only be temporary as spammers regrouped. Though spam levels dropped by as much 75 percent in the hours following McColo Corp.'s now infamous booting, spam's already making a comeback.
 | | Post McColo, Spam On The Rise Again |  |
A couple of weeks ago, McColo Corp. was kicked offline due to some nice investigative reporting tracing back swaths of malicious material to servers there. As expected, spammers scrambled, presumably just long enough to regroup elsewhere, likely in less consolidated places.
Symantec's MessageLabs told SecurityProNews today that spam levels are back on the rise, reclaiming about two-thirds of the ground they lost. The lag between takedown and reprisal is attributed to the time it took for botnet owners to find a new ISP and bandwidth provider.
"The Asprox and Rustock botnets are back with a vengeance after having found new command and control," said MessageLabs senior anti-spam technologist Matt Sergeant. "Cutwail never went away and it seems its owners have used the opportunity to increase output. Mega-D is also on the rise again, he said. Srizbi, having once been responsible for 50 percent of all spam, is now completely defunct. Without this botnet, spam levels won't return to what they had been. As always, businesses and consumers are urged to make sure their spam filters and anti-virus engines are up to date."
One thing seems certain, though. Security companies and researchers are getting better at tracking down and identifying the malware underground. Recent exposes from CNet, Berkley, and Symantec show that at least it will be harder and harder for them to organize, a development that will move them to a sort of diaspora.
Good thing too, especially as they get more clever about things. Microsoft just reported the removal of nearly 1 million fake Microsoft antivirus programs from PCs, or one five in every one thousand.
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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